During a conference call, voice or media connections are typically made between two or more communication devices such as telephones or mobile phones. When scheduling a conventional conference call, a user typically is required to configure the conference call manually. For example, conference call information, including the time, attendees, organizer, conference access number, and access codes (i.e., passcodes) can be entered into specific fields or tags. Such manual entry of conference information can be performed locally on a telephone or mobile phone, or can be configured on a remote personal computer (PC).
One difficulty with existing conferencing systems is that unauthorized participants can attempt to join a conference call. The participants of a conference call are sometimes loosely defined wherein original invitees can forward invitations and access codes to others who can then participate. Moreover, if an invitation contains a moderator passcode, confusion can result due to the existence of multiple access codes in the invitation. Additionally, moderator passcodes can easily be discovered by malicious users if an organizer of the conference does not manually remove the moderator passcode from the invitation. This can lead to fraudulent uses of the moderator passcode and can compromise security of the conferencing system.
Accordingly, existing conferencing systems suffer from drawbacks that limit their efficiency and usefulness.